SAPSRI’s highly successful SMED programme, which provides people with credit to start up small businesses or expand agricultural production, entered its 15th year in 2009. The loans are both in the form of a revolving loan provided to the entire village and individual loans granted for enterprise development. The most distinctive feature of the credit policy is that it is based on trust and not on legal procedures and systems. In 2008/09 we provided Rs.28,287,000 to over 10,000 people across 8 districts. We recovered a total of Rs. 25,350,603.15.
This analytical report is an outcome of the three-day Second South Asian Regional Conference on Combating Violence Against Women in Politics (VAWIP): Revisiting policies, politics and participation. Contact Shanti Upreti for a copy of the report: shantiu@sapi.org.np .
The closing of the 3-day Invisible Voices of Violence Against Women in Politics: Breaking the Silence conference was marked by a post press conference to answer questions from the media and other interested parties on the issue of violence against women in politics.
Dr. Rohit Kumar Nepali, Director of SAP I, Bushra Gohar, chairperson of SAP I and a politician in Pakistan, and Sumana Das Gupta of WISCOMP India answered questions from the floor on how the Conference Declaration will be followed up in the future.


